Perplexed by shrinking hemlines of skirts’, one Mississauga Catholic school insists that its female body wear black slacks. So starting this fall, all female students will wear black slacks. Kilts, whose varying lengths frustrated policing teachers as skirts were furtively rolled up or subject to guerrilla hemming, are henceforth banned from the uniform altogether. Under old uniform policy, Philip Pocock Secondary School’s female students could choose between black slacks and a plaid kilt meant to reach the knee. But starting next month, pants are the order of the day. Philip Pocock Principal Henry Tyndorf declined to comment, referring questions to Dufferin Peele Catholic District School Board communications manager Bruce Campbell. “The issue is primarily one of morality and modesty: Girls are just wearing the kilts way too short and it’s difficult to enforce,” he said. “You see a student and you have to approach them and say, ‘You know, your uniform is too short.’ … It’s just really difficult to enforce, and there’s way too much time involved. “We’re in the business of educating kids.”

67 per cent of elementary students scoring a B on the latest province-wide tests, edging closer to Ontario provincial goal of 75 per cent clearing the bar.

However there has been wild variation in how some students did over the past three years. More students’ scores dropped in math than ready and writing. 14 per cent of students met the standard in Grade 3 math but did not meet it by Grade 6. Nine per cent did the opposite – pulled up their scores to a B between the two grades.

“I’m concerned about students who met the standard in math in Grade 3 but then failed to meet it in Grade 6,” said Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

For the first time, the Peel District School Board has centralized the registration of immigrant students at the three new centres in Brampton, Mississauga and Malton, where newcomers are assessed and offered orientation interviews before being enrolled in one of the board’s 236 schools. The centres are made possible by a $3.7 million grant from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Eleven secondary schools and six middle schools in the Peel District School Board are host sites for the 2009 NOW and WIN programs. The programs were created to ease newcomer families into the school system by assisting families through orientation activities.

Newcomer Orientation Week (NOW) provides an intensive four-day program for secondary students who are new to Canada. NOW is offered in August and September at 11 schools, and helps newly-arrived high school students prepare for school and gives them the opportunity to make new friends.

Welcome and Information for Newcomers (WIN) program, is a one-day middle school orientation program for parents and students who are new to Canada. The WIN program is offered to students in grades 6, 7 and 8 at six different schools on September 1.

Not only do parents get questions about the education system answered, settlement counsellors are available to connect the adults with services and programs available in their neighbourhoods, from language training to job search.

Free child-minding is also provided.

“This is full one-stop shopping,” said Brian Woodland, the board’s director of communications. “It makes a big difference. In the past, people had gone to local schools to register and had to go to multiple places to get their immunization, school and immigration documents. Now, they don’t have to go to 20 different places for 20 different things.”

Since the school system is often the first contact for newcomers, offering settlement referral services on the spot makes sense. Half the students in the board speak a language at home other than English or French, said Woodland.

University of Toronto student Furqan M. Haroon faked his own abduction and has been now released after $20,000 bail. His brother and his mother are his sureties on his behalf. He was reported to police by someone who noticed him at St. Catharine’s mosque.

Furqan had called his own cousin and friend to tell him that he is followed by three men, one armed with a handgun in broad daylight. His van was found near Midwest Rd. and Midland Ave. in Scarborough with car keys still in car ignition. The police, however, seriously doubted the abduction.

To make things more complicated – or should we say dramatic – Furqan was arrested by York Police for stealing computer equipment from his employer, IBM. He was charged with fraud under $5,000.

He has now been charged for public mischief and will appear in court for theft charges on September 15th and public mischief allegation on September 29th.